"What seek you here?" he said. "There is death in the house, and the doors are closed against visitors to-day."
"Let them open to those who come in the Queen's name," said Sir Thomas. "I come to seize the persons of all within this house. Dead or alive, it matters not, I will arrest the bodies of all here consorting and assembling."
"Ah," said the man, "and who then art thou, thus commissioned, and from, whom hast thou such authority?"
"I am Sir Thomas Lucy, of Charlecote," returned the knight, "and if I mistake not, thou art Ralph Somerville, of Warwick."
"And how if we refuse you admittance?" said Somerville. "How then, Sir Thomas Lucy, of Charlecote?"
"Then I will make forcible entry," said Sir Thomas, "and those who oppose me must be content with the mishaps that attend such procedure."
"Of what are we accused, that we are thus molested in our retirement?" said Somerville.
"Of high treason, in conspiring to take the life of our blessed and gracious Queen Elizabeth," said Sir Thomas.
"Then receive the wages of your service, heretic," said Somerville, at the same moment discharging the contents of a petronel full in Sir Thomas's visage.
The weapon was thrust so near to the face of the knight that the powder blackened his features, but the ball, luckily, just missed his head, and passing downwards on his cuirass, glanced off harmless.